Fear Factor

1. Yes I sometimes like to be scared. I like watching scary movies and I like going through haunted houses and on haunted hayrides. I'm fine with being scared with other people. I hate being alone and scared.
2. I'm scared of taking a shower and having a stranger walk in. I'm scared of sleeping and waking up only to find someone standing over me, staring at me. I'm scared of driving alone at night and having someone in the back seat of my car. I'm scared of walking home alone at night and having someone follow me. Basically I'm afraid of being alone in the dark and not knowing what's going to happen.I also really hate spiders.
3. When I think of madness, I think of a person who is out of control. They don't think before they act or speak. They also don't have any control of their emotions and get so overwhelmed by them that they act out in a dangerous or harmful way.
4. I think in our society, a lot of teenage girls go "mad" due to an extreme sense of insecurity. They don't like something about themselves and can't change it. Thus they lose control and go "mad". They lash out at other people and I know one girl who actually tried to "sabotage" a friend of hers because she was jealous of her. To me, that's madness.

Short Story Hooks

1. In an instant, pain and blood flooded his face. The basket ball had collided with his nose. Again, Michael hadn't been paying attention and his teammates had taken the opportunity to humilate him as usual.

2. After practice, Michael walked into the locker to find out that all of his clothes and belongings had been taken. This wasn't unusual for him and he knew who had done it. Disheartened, he sat down on a bench and waited. It would only be an hour or so before they returned everything.

3. A burning sensation crept up Michael's left leg as he skidded across the hard gym floor. One of his teammates had tripped him yet again. AS he gathered his dignity and stood up, he heard one of the boys murmur,
"What a loser. He can't even jog across the gym without tripping all over his fat self."

4. An explosion of laughter erupted as his shorts fell to the floor. One of Michael's teammates had taken the liberty to "depants" him as a joke. Half-naked, he quickly reached for his shorts and pulled them back up. Practice was now over and he sullenly walked back to the locker room to face more humiliation.

Connie and the Creeper

Basically, I thought this story was creepy and frustrating. It was also confusing because I didn't get that whole phone part. Why did she freak out so much when she was trying to call her family? Well the setting was important because A. It increased the creepiness because, how did he know where she lived? and B. It made her vulnerable because she was alone. Connie's character draws the reader in because she's an idiot. She thinks she's so hot and goes out to eat with random guys she hardly knows. She also answers the door to strangers when she's home alone. That's just stupid. In my opinion she was definitely asking for trouble. Teens can relate to the main character, parents can relate to the story because it is the worst fear of a parent to have some strnager come and kidnap your child. It also shows the dark side of human nature. Well, since I'm such a realist, I think she was taken, raped, and killed. I think Arnold Friend was rejected by women so much that he became extremely insecure aout himself. Thus he turned his attention to teenage girls because he thought he'd have a better chance with them. However, I don't know how he got to be so creepy and stalker like.

1. A character I can relate to.
2. A setting I can picture/imagine.
3. A twist in the plot at the end.
4. A love interest between characters.
5. Witty banter/dialogue.
6. Dark humor.
7. If it's a mystery, the end has to make sense and be surprising. (When a Stranger Calls was a horrible movie because the killer wasn't anyone in the story. He was just some random guy.)
8. Sometimes I like stories that are written like a journal/diary.
9. Drama.
10. Happy book has to have happy ending. (like HP) : )